CIDETEC presents its latest advances in lithium-ion batteries

02/10/2015

Outstanding participation of CIDETEC at the ABBAA international conference for experts in automotive batteries

The 8th ABAA, the International Conference on Advanced Lithium Batteries for Automobile Applications, was celebrated from 30 September to 2 October in Bilbao. This is the first time the conference has been held in Spain, bringing together over 300 automotive battery experts from across the globe.

CIDETEC participated heavily in this event through six presentations offered by four researchers from the company’s battery team. They discussed some of the latest findings in advanced lithium-ion and lithium-sulphur batteries, battery modelling, and the characterization and prevention of degradative phenomena.

One of the most characteristic results demonstrated by researchers at CIDETEC and which reflects the current state of the company’s developments are the enhanced performance and cyclability obtained by the TRL (6-7) lithium-ion battery prototypes designed and manufactured entirely at CIDETEC.

These results are significant for their high cyclability at high operating speeds, an extremely promising development in terms of enhanced power and durability of lithium-ion batteries in all types of applications, such as electric vehicles. This technology is based on battery processing without organic solvents, lowering manufacturing costs and creating a more sustainable process.

As demonstrated in the graph below, 1.5 AH lithium-ion cell prototypes manufactured at CIDETEC underwent 6,500 cycles under a quick charge/discharge (1C/1C; 100%-0% DOD) with a retention capacity exceeding 80%, a figure traditionally considered the end of the useful life of a battery in electric mobility applications:

Under high-power discharging (IC/4C, that is, quadrupling the discharge speed compared to previous), almost 2,500 cycles are achieved before reaching the final 80% point of initial capacity, as shown in the following graph:

The photo below is of the type of CIDETEC-maunfactured battery that has obtained the aforementioned results:

Another noteworthy finding is that, even after more than 9,000 cycles in very demanding conditions, 70% of the initial capacity is still preserved; that is, the batteries still maintain a high useful capacity after a high number of cycles. This allows for their real applicability in second uses, thus effectively prolonging the batteries’ useful life and opening new business opportunities before they undergo the final recycling process.